The present invention relates, in general, to a process and device for computer-aided adaptation of an application program for a machine tool so as to move a round axle of the machine tool in conformance with a machined contour. The present invention also relates to a data carrier with a computer program stored on the data carrier for carrying out the process, and to a computer with a program memory having stored therein a computer program called by the computer. The present invention also relates to a machine tool with a controller configured to control the machine tool.
Nothing in the following discussion of the state of the art is to be construed as an admission of prior art.
Machine tools and application programs for machine tools that adapt such application programs to various machining operations are known in the art.
In such machining operations, the tool can have an edge, such as a cutting edge of a glass cutter. The machine tool operates optimally by moving the cutter along a contour relative to the machined workpiece. The contour is defined by a sequence of control commands for the feed axes of the machine tool that are part of an application program. The edge of the tool should always be oriented tangentially to the traveled contour. This orientation of the tool is affected by a round axle that rotates the tool or the workpiece.
The control commands for the round axle can also be part of the application program, although it may be necessary to separately program the control commands for the round axle. This would require a substantial programming task for the user when generating the application program.
In state-of-the-art applications, the round axle is therefore typically defined as a secondary axis, with its desired position being determined by the computer based on the control commands for the feed axes. This process operates quite satisfactory for a control command that describes, for example, a straight section or a evenly curved section of the contour. However, if the contour includes discontinuities in the angle or curvature, a contour error occurs which can cause the tool edge to have a significant misorientation at the angular or curvature discontinuity relative to the contour. Curvature discontinuities occur, for example, at a transition from a straight line to a curved line, and vice versa. Angular discontinuities occur, for example, at the corner points of a polygonal trace.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved device and process for computer-aided adaptation of application programs for a machine tool, which obviates prior art shortcomings and is able to specifically improve tracking of the round axle using sequential instructions processed by a computer.